Boxer v. Ellison

Newsweek reports that California Senator Barbara Boxer has rescinded an award that her staff made, apparently without her knowledge, to a Council on American-Islamic Relations official in her home state. The facts, as related by Newsweek, are murky, but it appears that Boxer learned of her own award to the CAIR activist, Basim Elkarra, only when she read about it on FrontPage Magazine. It also sounds as though Boxer is just now learning about CAIR and its connections to terrorist groups.
This puts Boxer in implicit conflict with newly-elected Congressman Keith Ellison, who has tight relations with CAIR. Interestingly, Boxer attributed her negative view of CAIR to statements about the organization by her fellow Senate Democrats Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer. All of this suggests that, as the Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, they want to sever any ties they may have to terror-supporting organizations. If that’s true, it may not bode well for Ellison’s influence within his own party. One wonders, too, what Democratic office-holders make of Ellison’s frequent support for those who murder, and attempt to murder, policemen. That, presumably, is not the image they want to promote if they hope to retain their majority beyond 2008.
Of course, the most surprising, and positive, aspect of this story is Barbara Boxer’s claim that she reads FrontPage.